Mobile Coverage Programme Discussion Paper Submission Cover Sheet Submission Information

Mobile Coverage Programme Discussion Paper
Submission Cover Sheet
Submission Information
This cover sheet should be attached to submissions made to the Department of Communications in
relation to the Mobile Coverage Programme Discussion Paper.
Contact Details
Name of respondent:
Name of organisation:
Phone:
Parkes Shire Council
02 6861 2333
Email:
Website (if applicable):
Date:
council@parkes.nsw.gov.au
28 Feb 2014
Confidentiality and privacy
All submissions and comments, or parts thereof, will be treated as non-confidential information unless
specifically requested, and acceptable reasons should accompany each request. Email disclaimers will not be
considered sufficient confidentiality requests.
Respondents lodging a submission should be aware that submissions (excluding any information agreed to be
treated as confidential information) will be made publicly available, including on the Department of
Communications’ website. Submissions and comments will be subject to freedom of information provisions.
Despite a submission being identified as confidential or sensitive, submissions may be disclosed where
authorised or required by law, or for the purpose of parliamentary processes.
Do you want all or parts of the submission to be treated as confidential? No
If yes, identify below which parts of the submission are to be treated as confidential (and provide a reason):
If the submission contains personal information of any third party individual, indicate on this Submission Cover
Sheet if that third party individual has not consented to the publication of his or her personal information:
Submission Instructions
Submissions are to be made by 5:00pm (AEST) Friday 28 February 2014.
Where possible, submissions should be lodged electronically, preferably in Microsoft Word or other text-based
formats via the email address mobilecoverage@communications.gov.au
Alternatively, submissions can be sent to the postal address below (to arrive by the due date):
The Manager
Mobile Coverage Programme
Department of Communications
GPO Box 2154
CANBERRA ACT 2615
All submissions lodged will be acknowledged by the Department of Communications by email (or by letter if no
email is provided). Respondents lodging a submission who do not receive acknowledgement of their
submission should contact the Department. Submissions which are not acknowledged by the Department as
being received may not be considered. Respondents should be aware that emails greater than 10Mb may not
be successfully delivered.
2 Cecile Street | PO Box 337 | PARKES NSW 2870
PH (61) 02 6861 2333 | FAX (61) 02 6862 3946
EMAIL council@parkes.nsw.gov.au | WEBSITE www.parkes.nsw.gov.au
PARKES SHIRE COUNCIL
Progress, opportunities and a quality lifestyle for our residents
LF:AW
Contact Person:
28 February 2014
The Hon Paul Fletcher MP
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications
Mobile Coverage Programme
GPO Box 2154
CANBERRA ACT 2601
Dear Mr Fletcher
Mobile Coverage Programme
Council would like to thank the Minister for the opportunity to comment on mobile phone
coverage in the Parkes Shire. We also thank the Federal Government for their commitment to
spend $100 million to extend mobile phone coverage and competition in regional Australia.
This is a wonderful opportunity for the community to have a say in how telecommunications
infrastructure is rolled out and improved in region NSW. The tyranny of distance is often
spoken about as being a disadvantage to business in regional NSW. Technology has the
power to address this issue and open up the regional areas of NSW and Australia to
businesses but for this to happen technology and communications systems have to be fast
and reliable.
The Federal Government has committed to regional policy and speaks positively about
decentralisation. Technology is the key to conquering the dilemma of distance.
Summary of Current situation in Parkes
In preparing this submission, Council asked the community about mobile phone coverage in
the Parkes Shire and received over 30 responses from the community. (please see appendix
1).
The request was made to identify locations that meet the criteria of poor reception under stage
1 of the $20 million black spot program.
Council feels that the $80 million Mobile Network Expansion Project is vital and especially as
the Parkes Shire includes many remote roads and communities. Council went out and asked
the community where the mobile 'black spots" were and an overwhelmingly response from
local people identified the Henry Parkes Way between Parkes and Orange as a major concern
especially as people travel between Parkes and Orange for medical reasons including women
who maybe in labour and can not birth in Parkes.
The Renshaw-McGirr Way between Parkes and Wellington was also identified as an area of
poor mobile phone coverage. One member of the public came into Council and told the story
of coming across a young P plate driver who had had an accident about 25km north of Parkes
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and not being able to call for help due to the poor mobile phone reception. The Newell
Highway between Parkes and Forbes especially at Tichborne was also identified as area of
frustration especially for people who do business between the two communities.
Council also received phone calls and emails from local residents who live on rural properties
which have little or no mobile phone and internet access (pls see appendix 2). Residents are
not only concerned about safety on their properties but also being able to run their businesses.
Additionally to this the education curriculum is now reliant on being able to have access to fast
and reliable internet and mobile coverage. The absence of these services severely
disadvantage rural communities.
The value of the $20 million mobile black spot programme is also important. Within Parkes
township several locations have been identified as "black spots". When Council consulted the
community the main area identified was east Parkes especially Lorking Street, Moor St ,
Bowditch Cr Area, Evans Parade and Waratah Street. Residents reported low or non existent
mobile phone coverage. Due to the large hill in the centre of the town. A tower in East Parkes
would rectify the long term problem. We also received letters from Small Business owners who
work from home about the difficulty of conducting business when they do not have mobile
phone coverage. (Please see attached appendix 3).
In Summary
Council welcomes the opportunity to respond on behalf of its community in relation to the
discussion paper on the proposed mobile coverage program.
Lacking the technical expertise to respond to the discussion paper's questions relating to the
$80 million mobile network expansion project, Council has limited its response to conveying
the black spot areas within the Shire in response to stage I of the $20 million black spot
program and to making general comments on the importance of reliable mobile phone
coverage to the Parkes Shire and regional Australia.
1. Council agrees with community feedback that coverage development or improvement is
urgently required:
•
State Highway 61 - Parkes to Orange
•
Town of Parkes - eastern side
•
Rural area between Peak Hill and Tullamore villages
•
4G network readiness and its ability to possibly rectify or non-existent cellular
and data coverage in areas across the Shire.
2. It is Council's position that adequate, consistent and quality mobile coverage is a public
community service obligation and not necessarily a commercial product driven by market
forces. The cost of technology is decreasing and improvements occurring which should assist
the Federal government in its efficient allocation of the $100 million project. Council is
informed that network technology developments such as adaptive capacity-on-demand, local
call routing, optimised voice and data compression, equipment miniaturisation, satellite
integration and alternative power sources are making backhaul costs less of a barrier to a
wider cellular network coverage area.
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3. Cellular data is also so critical to daily life (social, education and business) that regional
areas cannot continue to be disadvantaged in terms of availability purely due to a cost benefit
analysis exercise.
4. Transport efficiency and freight supply chain optimisation is emerging as a nation building
project. It has been calculated that a 1% improvement in transport efficiency translates to a
monetary savings of approximately $1 billion in the system nationwide. The Shire of Parkes is
recognised as a "crossroads of the nation" where the Newell highway linking Melbourne and
Brisbane by road intersects the east-west intercontinental rail corridor. The development and
implementation of the inland rail project linking Melbourne and Brisbane will also compliment
the Shire's transport hub status. To this end the entire road and rail network requires aboveaverage mobile coverage to drive supply chain efficiencies and deliver value to stakeholders in
the whole transport and freight logistics sector. Council strongly urges that the $80 million
mobile network expansion project includes the Parkes Shire to improve mobile coverage at the
confluence of a number of major road and rail transport routes.
5. Council is very proactive in its advocacy of decentralisation. Key to empowering people to
move to regional areas is reliable and accessible mobile phone coverage. Young families
seeking to relocate to regional Australia can be enticed by lifestyle benefits, housing
affordability and employment prospects but will not make the move if their access to the digital
economy is restricted or non-existent. It is widely publicised that mobile coverage and its
accessibility plays an important role and is a key factor in attracting and retaining a workforce
in regional Australia. The Federal government is urged to keep this in mind when prioritising
locations under the program.
I would like to take this opportunity to again thankyou for the opportunity to respond to the
discussion paper. On behalf of Mayor Cr. Ken Keith I extend an invitation to the working party
to visit Parkes to witness first-hand the issues and further discuss the aspects of Council's
submission.
Yours faithfully
Kent Boyd
GENERAL MANAGER
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PARKES SHIRE COUNCIL
Progress, opportunities and a quality lifestyle for our residents
Appendix 1- Location of Mobile Phone Black Spots in the Parkes Shire as identified by the
Community.
Black Spot
1 Molong Rd / Gunningbland & Bogan Gate / Orange Rd
2 From 10km out on Henry Parkes Way
Comments
Have reported to telstra
No mobile phone reception at all
3 7-8km out on Henry Parkes Way
No mobile phone reception at all in
residence & limited service outside
Condobolin Road, between Cooks Myalls Lane to
4 Lynton Lane
Telstra reception is intermittent or
poor at best (GPS Co-ord. -33.088679
Lat., 148.237093 Long.)
5
Mobile phone service terrible with
Telstra & non-existent with Optus
Molong Road Parkes
6 Kelly Road Parkes
Mobile phone service is patchy, often
only 1 bar
7 Moor Street Parkes
Mobile coverage problems with
Telstra, limited reception throughout
residence
8 Mandagery
9 Deep Lead Rd Parkes
10 Renshaw McGirr Way Parkes
11 Lorking Street
Reception unreliable, usually only one
bar coverage with Telstra
no mobile reception
No mobile reception
no coverage
East Parkes - Lorking St/ Moor Street and Bowditch Cr
12 Area/ Evans Parade
13 Nadine Lane Parkes
14 Tichborne near billabong Creek
no coverage
no Coverage
no Coverage
15 Lorking Street Parkes
16 Wongalea Rd Parkes
no coverage/ the hill is stopping the
signal according to telstra
no
17 Waratah st, Parkes
no coverage - trying to run a small
business from home
18 Trundle in the Bruie Plains area
limited mobile coverage on most of
our properties
19
20
22
23
24
Danilenko st Parkes
Moor St Parkes
Moor Street, Lorking Street not good.
Gunningbland
Orange Rd near tanks lane
telstra - very low coverage
no coverage
Very low coverage
Very low coverage
East Parkes appears to be a bit of problem - I have
25 had feedback about Thornbury Street, Hillcrest
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Progress, opportunities and a quality lifestyle for our residents
Avenue etc.
26 Wellington Road (31 North east of Parkes)
Alec Town - Near Harvey Rangers (north East Alec
27 Town)
28 Bogan Road, Parkes/Goonumbla
29 Bowditch Cres Parkes
30 Middle Trundle Rd
31 Between Parkes and Bogan Gate
32 Western Part of the Shire
33
34
35
36
Lake Endeavour Dam
Back Trundle Road
Cooks Mydalls
Anywhere outside Trundle CBD
No coverage
No Coverage
No Coverage
no coverage
No coverage
Very low coverage
Very low coverage
Council currently undertaking an
$11million upgrade
Very low coverage
Very low coverage
No/ Very low coverage
Please note: Council can supply full names and addresses of most of the people who contacted
us, however due to privacy concerns we have not included them in the submission.
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